Walls of CCLP4 1.0a

1 Screenshot

About This File

Levels using the walls from: Block Parking, Lockdown, Mindless Self-Indulgence and Japanese Game Show were all created after after someone else (hi Josh) had posted a level using those walls. Any similar bits of design between levels using any levels not mentioned above entirely coincidental, and similarities with those levels are too- I was specifically trying to do something different. This is why I elected not to announce the project officially and instead just tease it- I didn't want to be influenced too much by seeing other people use those walls, as it's already difficult enough trying to make the new level feel distinct from the old, outside of certain throwbacks. Likewise, I didn't want to discourage others from playing in the same playground because "it'd already been done"! Having a decent amount of levels to point to using the same walls as a starting point but a completely different end result shows that even if one person has made a walls of level, there's still more that can be done. After all, just look at Cold Hard Chip and A Pressing Concern. And even with similarities in structure between Water is My Friend and Dilapidated Factory, the levels themselves are totally different. And those used the walls from Fire is My Enemy, which used the walls from Jumble I from CCLP3!!!

Anyway, this project started back on August 6th, 2017, with Pixelated Fire. I was looking for a starting point for a level because I wanted to make one, and the inside/outside section caught my eye with an immediate idea to fill the outside with force floors. The level grew from there, but while I was building it, I had a nagging thought in the back of my mind. Joshua Bone has been doing Walls of CC1 for a while. Josh Lee started but aborted the same with CCLP1. Why shouldn't I try with CCLP4? So I looked through the set for some levels that would prove challenging to remake, and built Enemy Within, Enemy Without, Hallucinogenic Substance, and Orienteering early on, using Air Bubble, Suburban Legend, Shrub, and Keyboard Malfunction as bases. Once I had overcome a few of what I thought would be the biggest challenges, I had so many ideas for levels stemming from these! Back in September, I had the idea for a level that duplicated the top and bottom halves, but they would play out completely differently, and then spent 9 hours converting Monster Swapper into Another Perspective. In October, I built a Xenocide inspired level within Ruinous Plaza. November, a blob level in Sewerway. And so on, with some levels taking advantage of aesthetic choices in the original levels such as in Nectar Meadow and Antidisruptive Caves. I dared to step out of my comfort zone with some things and build in pointless rooms and areas, more aesthetic red herrings, and more complex ideas... sometimes. I was inspired by the strangest small comments sometimes as well, mostly while watching Josh's JoshL2 LP (Yet Another Joyride, Block Plaza) but from all sorts of random things, oftentimes giving an idea for a set of walls that I thought had promise but wasn't sure how to properly repurpose. I've poured so much into this project over the past 8 months (including test time: the last level. The Price of Freedom was made on March 17th) and feel like I've learned a lot from it, too.

And so I hope you enjoy my take on the Walls of CCLP4. I enjoyed making these levels quite a bit, as my totally-for-real-this-time last MS and Lynx compatible CC1 set. I expect to still pull out CC1 for MS or Lynx only shenanigans, as there's still some interesting space to be explored with both, but I think it's finally about time to move onto CC2.

As for the uploaded files, "1.0" is the CCLP4 ordered version of the set that has been uploaded to pieguy's site. There is no difficulty curve or content balancing here, and all untimed levels have been changed to have a time limit of 1000 seconds, to allow score reporting there. This version will also not be updated once scores are reported just so I don't have to update multiple sets- and it's interesting to be able to see a level before and after a fix is applied (I hope no fixes are necessary). The version with underscores is the one I have in my data folder and will receive updates as necessary, and is sorted roughly by difficulty order. This is the recommended one to play!